When making use of social media for your business, LinkedIn can often be overlooked. LinkedIn has become a successfully useful tool for a variety of different businesses, big and small. When putting together your social media marketing strategy, LinkedIn should be a top priority and carefully managed to ensure you’re getting its full benefits.

LinkedIn Lets You Create A Profile and Nurture It

The best part about LinkedIn is that it gives you a profile you can really make unique and nurture with consistent updates. You have room to describe what services your business provides, facts about your company, and other areas that will make you seem reliable and competent within your industry. Once your page is fully detailed, keeping up with it is easy. Update events, changes in the company, and other important details so potential customers get an accurate idea of how your business operates. It’s also important to interact with customers as they interact with you- answer any inquiries they have in a timely manner.

It Allows Promotion and Interaction

LinkedIn allows you to promote your business in a professional manner to both your target audience and other businesses. You can also participate in active LinkedIn discussions and establish your brand as an expert. LinkedIn is also a great hub for customer recommendations. These will be visible on your page for other potential clients to see, so when you have happy customers, ask for recommendations on LinkedIn!

You Can Join Relevant Groups

Groups on LinkedIn are a great way to build awareness of your company in the area it specializes in. Joining groups similar to your business, industry, or client base help you see what’s going on in your business and what customers are looking for, as well as what other businesses similar to yours are doing. You can also find prospective customers by seeing what people are searching for. When looking for groups to join, make sure they have active participants and are relevant to your niche.

Social media has become a central part of marketing strategies for all businesses, but with new strategies comes more confusion. Many popular beliefs about social media just aren’t true, and we’re here to find the myths and shed light on the facts. When your business decides to dive into social media, make sure you’re not following these outdated misconceptions.

Myth: If a post didn’t go viral, it was worthless.

Fact: This is a very common way of thinking for those interested in social media. When we think of the biggest social media success stories, we think of huge campaigns that went viral with YouTube videos or controversial tweets. We don’t feel that something that only get a few retweets or one reply is worth posting because it wasn’t seen worldwide. This simply isn’t true. Social media marketing isn’t about just one, big hit. Adding value and building a brand over time is the focus, and brands that do this well have real, interactive and interested audiences.

Myth: Twitter won’t work unless you’re famous.

Fact: Twitter matters for every business, whether you’re Justin Timberlake or the local grocery store. Having millions of followers may be nice, but building up a following of your target market and relevant businesses is more important. You also have to be relevant timely with your tweets: Post when you know your market is online about events and happenings that you know they care about. Respond to your followers, don’t overflow their timelines, and you can see just as much success as Miley Cyrus.

Myth: My target market is older, so social media won’t help.

Fact: The numbers don’t add up with this belief, even though it’s a very common misconception. More than half of Internet users 50 or older are on Facebook. Your target market is out there, you’ve just got to find them. Even if your target market isn’t into social media, harnessing its power for SEO purposes and helping your company pop up on Google searches is still an important aspect of social media marketing.

Myth: The more you post, the more ‘likes’ you’ll get.

Fact: While posting regularly is an important strategy on Facebook, posting too often can actually harm your popularity. Posting more than once a day is probably too much. Figuring out when your target market is online and what they want to see on their timeline is the formula for posting success. A successful Facebook campaign has unique, funny and engaging posts that don’t feel intrusive or obnoxious to users.

Myth: Blogging is a waste of time.

Fact: Blogging gives your company a voice and can make you an expert in the field. As long as you have something to say and you say it frequently, uniquely, and expertly, blogging is always a good tool for your site. Not to mention, blogging is very easy when you know the platform and your industry. Blogging gives you the opportunity to answer common questions about your business and gives you room to post interesting content to share along your social media — a win-win situation.

Next time you consider a social media campaign, turn to Fahrenheit Marketing. We offer full-service social media marketing and specialize in fine-tuning your media to fit your target market. Don’t allow myths to deter your company from social media — it’s an important part of any marketing strategy. Contact us today for a free consultation.

Facebook announced the introduction of clickable hashtags on it’s news site this week, making it possible to see large feeds of the biggest topics people are posting about using hashtags (can we get a #finally?). Similar to Twitter or Instagram, Facebook hashtags are a way of making your post part of a bigger discussion. The new feature allows you to search for hashtags in the search bar, click on hashtags that originated in other services like Twitter and make posts from your hashtags feed or search results.

While hashtagging on Facebook was typically seen as unnecessary and a social media faux pas, now it can be a truly useful and insightful tool for businesses, much as it is on Twitter or Instagram. Facebook has established itself as a place of conversation, and now it’s even easier to tap into with the hashtag.

If your business hasn’t made use of hashtagging, now’s the time to do it. Hashtags allow users to basically organize their posts within a topic. For example, posting a picture of your restaurant and putting ‘#austin’ or ‘#food’’ allows people who have used those tags or are searching those tags to have your post pop up in the hashtag feed. Searching hashtags also allows you to see what your target audience is posting about. During major events, many hashtags will ‘trend’ world- or state-wide. Jumping in on these popular tags can put your name out there. Facebook mentioned in the release of hashtags that a similar Twitter ‘trending topics’ feature should come out soon as well.

So, if you’re not on the hashtag bandwagon yet, now’s a good time to do it. #Getready

As important as the layout of your company’s website is, the colors of your logo and your site are just as important. Certain colors can evoke particular emotions in customers and cause an immediate effect on consumers’ minds. The most prominent and recognizable brands in the world can be noticed simply by their color, and studies have shown that 60-80 percent of a customer’s purchasing decision can be influenced by a product’s color — and, if you’re selling online, this includes your logo and website. By understanding the color wheel and the psychology behind it, you and your marketing company can figure out what colors are right for your business.

A warm color like red evokes an immediate reaction from people — it makes their heart rate elevate, makes breathing rapid and activates the pituitary gland. For the food, technology, cars and agriculture industries, this color is popular and effective. It gets people excited, hungry and elated about products. For industries like finance and airlines, this color hasn’t been so popular as it tends to make people nervous and unsure — something we never want to feel about our safety in the air or our money.

Cool colors like purple and blue put people at ease and remind them of royalty and wealth. Blue is arguably the most popular brand color for its relaxing qualities. These colors are both wildly useful in the technology, healthcare and finance industries because they make people calm — a feeling we all need when faced with new tech advances, health emergencies and when dealing with our money.

Fiery colors like yellow and orange communicate hope, optimism, cheerfulness and energy — these colors get people excited. For industries like home and healthcare, success has been seen with these colors because people have hope in health situations and cheerfulness in their homes when recognizing these shades. Both colors are wildly unpopular in clothing industries.

Earth tones like green and brown are associated with earthiness, serenity, good health and durability. However, both are successful in different industries, and green can create different emotions based on the shade. Green tends to be popular in the home and technology industries, while brown is pretty unpopular with both. Brown has success with clothing and environmental causes.

Black and white are both popular with clothing — black boasts class and sophistication while white represents purity and cleanliness. Black is also successful in technology and cars, while white sees more success in healthcare.

Depending on your industry, the colors your website and brand should use will vary. It’s important to be aware of color psychology — it can make the difference between success and failure.

At Fahrenheit Marketing, we offer full-service web design, including layout and color themes, as well as doing all of the research to make your site user-friendly and sleek. We pride ourselves on our dedication to treating each customer uniquely and creating websites based on individual needs. Contact us today for a free consultation.

The term ‘responsive design’ has been thrown around a lot recently, and as mobile Web gets bigger and iPads keep selling, it’s going to stick around. The concept of responsive Web design revolves around making websites compatible on a variety of devices, from laptops to iPhones to video game browsers. In a mobile, on-the-go world, having a responsive website is a necessity and a desire for any company.

The basis of responsive design is flexibility. Adapting to the needs of visitors is a top priority for most companies, ranging from blogging interesting content to providing useful company information, and responding to user devices is just another part of customer service. When a website has responsive design, Web pages resize and flow to fit the screen the consumer is using. Go to a website and start messing with the size of your browser — does the site readjust to fit? Or does adjusting your screen cut off part of the site? Sites with responsive design will move as the browser moves, and this is what responsive design is all about.

Responsive design may seem initially as more of a want than a need. But, the visitors to your site would beg to differ. Studies have shown that delays or inconveniences can lead to consumers immediately leaving sites — there are plenty of other websites to browse and they’ll find the site that they can actually see on their phone. Maximum convenience is important for Web design — you’ve got the be not only the best, but the best-looking to keep consumers on your site. As snazzy and intriguing as your site may look, it loses 50 percent of its appeal when the site is cut in half on a smaller browsing screen.

When working with a Web design or marketing company, be sure to make responsive design part of your plan. It’s an integral part of making a user-friendly site, and a necessity for any company that wants to stand out in its industry.

At Fahrenheit Marketing, we offer fully responsive web design that will set your site apart from the rest. We’d love to chat with you about the possibilities for your company. Contact us to schedule a consultation today.